The faceless girl stood motionless, the coffin's rope slack in her small, pale hand. The wind that shouldn't exist in a place without weather tugged at her white Victorian dress, making it ripple like something underwater.
Yume's Pandora orbs shifted positions, forming a defensive pattern around the sphere. His eyes never left the child-shaped thing below them.
"Yume..." Levy's voice was tight. "My translation magic—it's going haywire. The air here is written with death magic. Layers upon layers of it, centuries old."
Cana flipped another card. The Hanged Man. She flipped again. The same card. Again. Still the Hanged Man. "We're stuck. That's what my cards keep saying. We're stuck here."
"Lower us down," Yume said quietly.
"What?!" Cana grabbed his arm. "Are you insane? That thing just called you by your magic's name! It knows you!"
"Exactly." Yume's jaw was set, his expression cold and analytical. "Which means running won't help. Whatever this is, it was planned. Specifically for me." He met Cana's eyes. "And if we're stuck here, our only option is forward."
Levy adjusted her glasses, her hands trembling slightly. "Then... we go together. No splitting up. No heroes."
Yume nodded. The black sphere descended slowly, touching down on the cracked earth twenty feet from the girl.
The orbs retracted, reforming into their compact floating positions around Yume. The moment the barrier dropped, the wrongness of the place hit them like a physical force.
The air was too cold. Too still. It smelled of turned earth and something sweet-rotten, like flowers left too long on a grave.
The girl tilted her head—a movement that was too fluid, too smooth, like a doll on strings.
"You came down. Good. The Master appreciates those who don't waste time."
Her voice was still that of a child, but layered—as if a dozen children were speaking in perfect unison, their voices echoing from different distances.
Yume stepped forward, placing himself between the girl and his team. "Who is your Master? And why did you bring me here?"
The void where her face should be somehow smiled—not with a mouth, but with a sensation, a presence that radiated amusement.
"So many questions. But you already know, don't you, Darkbound? Your magic whispers to you in the dark. Tells you secrets you pretend not to hear."
She began walking, dragging the coffin behind her with that awful scraping sound. She didn't walk toward them, but parallel, circling slowly.
"Come. Walk with me. I'll show you."
"We're not going anywhere with you," Cana snapped, cards appearing between her fingers. "Send us back. Now."
The girl stopped. Turned her void-face toward Cana.
**"Back? But you just arrived. The tour hasn't even started."**
She giggled—a sound like wind chimes made of finger bones.
"Besides... you misunderstand. You're not prisoners. You're guests.You can leave whenever you want."
She gestured toward the horizon, where the bruised sky met the endless sea of graves.
"Just walk. Pick a direction. Walk until you find the edge."
Levy's eyes widened. "It's... it's a loop, isn't it? This place has no edges. No borders."
"Smart girl! Yes. The Threshold has no exit. Only doors. And doors only open when I say they open."
Yume's fists clenched. "Then what do you want?"
The girl resumed walking, and against every instinct, Yume followed. Levy and Cana exchanged glances, then hurried to stay close.
As they walked between the graves, details became clearer—and more horrifying.
The headstones had names.
As they walked between the graves, details became clearer—and more horrifying.
The headstones had names.
Levy stopped abruptly, her eyes scanning the inscriptions. "These names... Marcus Thorne, Elena Brightwater, Johan Cress..." Her voice cracked. "These are people from Serenity Creek. The village registry I read when we arrived—these are the villagers!"
Cana knelt by another grave, her hand hovering over the carved letters. "They're all here. Every single name from that village." She looked up, face pale. "Yume... these are graves for people who aren't dead yet."
"Not yet," the girl confirmed cheerfully. "But soon! The harvest is almost complete. By tomorrow's dawn, these will all be filled."
Yume's magic flared—his orbs spinning faster, crackling with dark energy. "You're going to kill the entire village."
"Kill? No, no, no. Such an ugly.word." The girl stopped, finally turning to face them fully. "We're going to elevate.them. Free them from their weak, mortal shells. Give them purpose in the Master's grand design."
"And what about me?" Yume's voice was ice. "Why drag me here specifically?"
The girl clapped her hands together—once, twice, three times. Each clap echoed across the graveyard like thunder.
"Finally! The right question!"
She knelt beside the coffin and pushed it open. Inside, instead of a body, was a book. Ancient, bound in black leather that looked disturbingly like skin. Pages made of something that wasn't quite paper.
The girl lifted it with reverent care.
"Do you know what Darkbound Legion magic really is, Yume of Fairy Tail?"
He said nothing.
"It's not light magic. Not dragon slaying. Not celestial spirits borrowed from the stars. It's our magic. Death magic. Soul magic. The magic of theThreshold."
She opened the book. The pages were covered in shadow-script that seemed to writhe and move.
"Three hundred years ago, a man came to the Threshold. A powerful mage, dying, desperate. He made a deal with the Master: give him power over death itself, and in return, he would serve as an anchor—spreading the Master's influence in the living world."
Levy's face went white. "That man... he created the original Darkbound Legion technique."
"Yes! And he had children. And his children had children. And the magic passed down, generation to generation, each one carrying a little piece of the Threshold in their soul."The girl's void-face turned to Yume. "A little piece of us."
"You're lying," Yume said flatly. "My magic comes from my own strength. My own training."
"Does it? Then why do your shikigami feel so natural to you? Why does commanding darkness and shadow feel like breathing?"
She closed the book with a soft thump.
"Because you were born for this, Yume. Your ancestors made a pact. And now, you will fulfill it."
"I'm not fulfilling anything." Yume's orbs expanded, beginning to transform. "I'm taking my team and leaving. One way or another."
The girl tilted her head again, that too-smooth motion.
"You can't leave. Not until you make a choice."
The coffin began to glow with sickly green light. The book dissolved into shadow, reforming into three distinct shapes that hung in the air like holograms.
Option One:A vision of Yume, older, impossibly powerful, wreathed in black flames. Armies of shikigami at his command—not eight or ten, but hundreds. His eyes burned with cold fire. Around him, the world bowed.
"Accept the Master's offer. Become his chosen heir. Unlimited power. Unlimited shikigami. Immortality. All you have to do is open yourself to the Threshold completely."
Option Two:A vision of two fresh graves. Levy's name on one. Cana's name on the other. Yume standing before them, alone, broken.
"Refuse. Walk away. The Master will respect your choice... but your friends will pay the price. Their graves are already dug. Already waiting."
Option Three: A vision of Yume fighting—against darkness, against monsters, against *himself*. Blood and exhaustion and pain. No guarantee of victory.
"Or... fight. Survive until dawn. Prove you're strong enough to reject the Threshold's call." The girl's voice dropped to a whisper."But dawn may never come. And you won't be alone in the dark."
The three visions hung in the air, pulsing with terrible possibility.
Levy stepped forward, voice shaking with fury. "This is insane! You can't just—"
"These are the rules," the girl interrupted, her cheerful tone gone, replaced by something ancient and absolute."The Threshold does not negotiate. The Threshold does not compromise. Choose."
Yume looked at the three visions. At the power. At the graves. At the endless fight.
Then he looked at Levy and Cana. At his friends, exhausted and terrified but here. Standing with him.
He thought of Fairy Tail. Of the guild that had given him a home. Of the people who trusted him.
Of who he chose to be, not who his bloodline demanded.
His Pandora orbs snapped into weapon form—four became blades, four became shields. His magic surged, and he felt his shikigami stirring in response, ready to be summoned.
"I choose option three."
The girl's void-face somehow conveyed delight.
"Wonderful! The Master will be so pleased. He loves the ones who fight."
She spread her arms wide, and her voice echoed across the infinite graveyard with the force of a proclamation:
"Then let the trial begin! Survive until dawn, Darkbound, and you may leave. Fail... and you'll join the harvest."
"But remember—you won't be alone in the dark."
The ground beneath them began to breathe.
A rhythmic rise and fall, like the chest of something massive sleeping just below the surface.
Then the graves began to open.
Not slowly. Not ominously.
They burst open all at once, thousands of them, earth exploding upward in fountains of dirt and decay.
From every grave, skeletal hands emerged, clawing at the air.
Levy grabbed Yume's arm. "Yume—!"
"Stay close!" He summoned instantly: "Sky! Sea!"
The twin Divine Dogs materialized in flashes of white and black light, lightning crackling around Sky's jaws, water swirling around Sea's paws.
Cana scattered her cards, and they ignited with golden light. "Whatever you're planning, plan it fast!"
The skeletons pulled themselves free—not shambling corpses, but warriors. Ancient armor clung to bones. Rusted weapons gleamed in the perpetual twilight. Hundreds of them. Thousands.
And then the ground at the center of the graveyard exploded.
Something massive rose from the earth.
A creature of fused bone—skulls upon skulls, melted and merged together into a towering form thirty feet tall. Its body was a grotesque amalgamation of rib cages and spinal columns twisted into the shape of a giant. Each skull that made up its mass had glowing green eyes.
It opened its countless mouths and *screamed*—a sound like a thousand dying voices in unison.
Levy's face went white. "That's... that's a Gashadokuro. A mythical yokai made from the bones of people who died of starvation. But it shouldn't be—they don't exist! They're just legends!"
The Keeper clapped her hands gleefully.
"In your world, maybe! But here in the Threshold, we collect allthe stories. All the nightmares. All the deaths that were forgotten."
She began to fade, her small form dissolving into mist.
"Good luck, Darkbound! Try not to die too quickly. The Master is watching... and he does so hate a boring show."
Her laughter echoed as she vanished completely.
The Gashadokuro took one thunderous step forward, shaking the ground.
The skeletal army charged.
Yume's eyes blazed with cold fire. His voice cut through the chaos with absolute authority:
"Levy—get to high ground and start analyzing! Find a weakness! Cana—crowd control, thin their numbers! I'll handle the big one!"
Sky and Sea howled in unison, lightning and water exploding outward.
Yume's Pandora orbs launched forward, four transforming into a massive black blade.
The battle for survival had begun.
And somewhere in the bruised sky above, the Keeper watched with her faceless smile, counting down the endless hours until a dawn that might never come.
***
[END CHAPTER 56]
***
Next Chapter Preview:Chapter 57: The Siege of Bones- The fight intensifies. Yume unleashes his full shikigami arsenal. Levy discovers the Gashadokuro's weakness. Cana's cards reveal a terrible truth. And Yume makes a choice that will mark him forever...
Authors note: go and check out my new book
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